Think About It: UH Athletics and Reality

The University of Hawaii-Manoa on behalf of its athletics
department is apparently going to ask the UH Board of Regents to forgive its
ever-growing athletics department debt, which will reach upwards of $13-million
by the end of this fiscal year on June 30. Whether or not it's forgiven,
something needs to be done to rectify the inequities of this division I
program. The UH athletics department has been asked to run itself more like a
business, but is that realistic in today's challenging college landscape when
the athletics department has its hands tied behind its back like few other comparable
institutions.

UH pays rent to play football, it doesn't get a fair share
of concessions from the Rainbowtique, it doesn't share in parking revenue when
you come on campus to park specifically for an athletic event, and it gets less
in state funding than any other state schools it competes against. So asking UH
sports to fix its financial woes in the face of these realities is a bit like
asking a guy in a leaky boat to keep rowing to shore, without plugging or even
acknowledging the obvious holes…

One possible way to reassess things would be to simply plan
for and accept an annual deficit
of $2- to $3-million, which would still be a smaller loss than realized by most
institutions in the so-called Football Bowl Subdivision. Yes, despite raking in billions of dollars in television,
ticket, and licensing revenues, all but 14 of the 106 schools in the NCAA's top
athletic division lost money in 2009. Only 17 of 300 Division I
athletic programs made money between 2004 and 2006. Only 10% of 227 Division I public
school athletic programs made money in 2011. The median loss for all schools was
over $10 million. So let's give UH a fair chance and either provide more state
subsidies, unpleasant as it may sound, allow revenue to funnel to athletics
when it's due to athletics, or get realistic about expectations to turn a so-called
profit year after year. Think about it…